Wind Mitigation Inspection in South Carolina: What Gets Checked on Your Roof

By the Weather Shield Roofing team · Published October 12, 2026

The short answer

• A wind mitigation inspection documents the features of your house that resist high wind, mostly on the roof: the roof covering, how the deck is nailed, how the roof is tied to the walls, the roof shape, any sealed roof deck, and the protection on windows and doors.
• South Carolina law requires insurers to tell you, when a policy is issued and at every renewal, which windstorm discounts exist and their range. The amount of each credit is the insurer's, not the state's.
• For wind and hail coverage in the coastal and seacoast areas, which take in all of Horry and Georgetown counties, state law also requires rating plans to include credits or surcharges for storm shutters, roof tie-downs, construction standards and building codes, among other factors.
• South Carolina does not publish one statewide inspection form the way Florida does. Your insurer tells you which form it accepts: a company form, the coastal wind pool's dwelling form, or Florida's uniform form, revised April 1, 2026. Ask your agent which one.
• A roof replacement is the one time most of the roof items can change at once. Keep the permit, the nailing spec and the contractor's photos. They are what the inspector documents.
• Who may sign the report depends on your insurer's form. The SC Wind and Hail Underwriting Association's dwelling form asks for a licensed building contractor, registered architect, engineer or building code official; Florida's form lists six kinds of signer. Weather Shield Roofing does not issue wind mitigation reports. We replace and repair roofs and inspect them free.

Wind mitigation in South Carolina by the numbers

What a wind mitigation inspection is

A wind mitigation inspection is a documented look at the parts of a house that decide whether the roof stays on and the water stays out in a hurricane. An inspector photographs and records each feature on a form, and the insurer reads the form against its rating plan to apply credits. The inspection does not grade the roof's condition, does not look for leaks, and does not say whether the roof needs work. It answers one question per feature: is it there, and can it be proven?

The form most people have heard of is a Florida form, because Florida's regulator publishes one. South Carolina handles it differently: the state writes the rules for what insurers must credit and disclose, and leaves the inspection form to each company. The rest of this page follows that split.

One thing to be clear about: Weather Shield Roofing replaces, repairs and inspects roofs. We do not issue wind mitigation reports, and nothing on this page is a substitute for one. What we can do is build a roof whose deck nailing, sealed deck, edges and connectors are documented so the inspector can score them.

Four inspections it is not

• A roof condition inspection

  That is what a roofer does: wear, leaks, flashing, remaining life. Our free inspection is this kind. A wind mitigation inspection does not grade condition; it documents features.

• A four-point inspection

  An insurer's check of the roof, electrical, plumbing and HVAC on an older house before it writes a policy. Some inspectors do both visits in one trip, but they are separate reports.

• A storm damage inspection

  A claim inspection after a storm, done by the adjuster or a roofer documenting damage. A wind mitigation report is taken on an undamaged house.

• The SC Safe Home wind inspection

  A program-specific inspection by an inspector on the state's participating list, done after you apply for the grant. You pay the inspector, and the Department of Insurance caps that fee on a sliding scale by the home's square footage. It is not the same report your insurer uses.

If your insurer asked for an inspection before renewing, check which of these it meant. Our guide on roof inspections before a policy renewal covers the condition kind.

The nine questions on the 2026 form

These are the nine questions on Florida's uniform mitigation form as revised April 1, 2026: the seven long-standing ones, plus wind speed region and roof slope, added in the revision. Some insurers writing in South Carolina accept this form; ask your agent. The coastal wind pool's dwelling form asks a shorter list: opening protection, roof sheathing attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, secondary water resistance, masonry construction and the building code. For every item below, the question is what the inspector looks at and what you can hand over to prove it.

Two of the nine, deck attachment and secondary water resistance, are the ones Grand Strand homeowners most often lose by default. They sit under the shingles. If nobody photographed them when the roof went on, the inspector cannot verify them from a finished roof and the form scores them as unknown. The IBHS figures for both are large: ring-shank nails can double uplift resistance, and sealing the deck seams can cut water intrusion by up to 95% when the covering is lost.

Roof-to-wall attachment is the one you can check yourself before paying anyone. Our hurricane straps guide walks through the attic, corner by corner, and explains what South Carolina's code requires on a new house.

What South Carolina law says about windstorm credits

Two sections of state law do the work. Neither names a dollar amount or a percentage; both bind the insurer, not the homeowner.

• The notice rule. S.C. Code 38-75-755(A): at the issuance of a new policy and at each renewal, all insurers “clearly shall notify the applicant or policyholder” of “the availability and the range of each premium discount, credit, other rate differential, or reduction in deductibles” for “fixtures or construction techniques demonstrated to reduce the amount of loss in a windstorm,” and must “describe generally what measures the policyholders may take to reduce their windstorm premium.” That notice is in your renewal packet. Read it before you book an inspection, because it tells you which features your company actually credits.
• The coastal rating rule. S.C. Code 38-73-1095(C): rating plans for essential property insurance (wind and hail coverage) in the coastal area and the seacoast area must include discounts, credits, surcharges or debits for nine factors: storm shutter use, roof tie-down use, construction standards, building codes, distance from water, elevation, flood insurance, policy deductibles, and other factors the insurer requests or the director orders. Horry and Georgetown counties sit inside those areas, so every wind and hail plan written here carries these factors.

What the law does not do is make the credit automatic or set its size. The company's own rate filing decides how much a hip roof, a strapped roof or a sealed deck is worth on your policy, and the inspection report is how the company learns you have them. We cannot tell you what your discount would be. Your insurer sets it.

There is also a state income tax credit for fortifying your legal residence against hurricane damage (S.C. Code 12-6-3660). It is separate from the insurance credits, and our FORTIFIED Roof guide covers it.

Which form South Carolina insurers accept

South Carolina's Department of Insurance has not published a single statewide wind mitigation form. That is the main practical difference from Florida, where the regulator's form, OIR-B1-1802, is the standard. Here each insurer names the form it accepts. Some use a company form of their own, some accept the Florida uniform form, and the state's coastal wind pool, the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association, publishes its own mitigation forms, including a dwelling mitigation verification certification.

The Florida form was revised effective April 1, 2026 (Rev. 04/26). The revision keeps the same roof and opening items, adds two questions (the design wind speed region and whether the main roof slope is 6:12 or steeper), asks for a photo or document for each feature from the region question on, and adds a line for FORTIFIED Roof, Silver and Gold certificates as proof for specific features. Citizens, Florida's state-backed insurer, says every field must be completed by the inspector, and it keeps accepting the prior Rev. 01/12 form if it was completed within five years before April 1, 2026 and nothing on the house has changed.

How to prepare for the inspection

1. Pull the roof permit and the house permit from your county's online records, or ask your closing attorney for the file. Permit dates set the building code answers.
2. Find the roof contract and invoice. The product name, the underlayment, the nailing pattern and any sealed deck product are the proof the inspector needs for the roof covering, deck attachment and secondary water resistance questions.
3. Clear the attic hatch and a path to at least one outside corner of the attic. The inspector has to see the deck nails and the roof-to-wall joint from inside.
4. Gather window, door, shutter and garage door paperwork with the product approval numbers.
5. Ask your agent which form the company accepts before you book, and whether it wants photos attached to every item. Insurers writing in South Carolina use their own forms or Florida's uniform form; the 2026 Florida revision asks for a photo for the features it documents.
6. Book someone the form allows to sign it. The wind pool's dwelling form is for a licensed building contractor, registered architect, engineer or building code official; Florida's form lists its own six kinds of signer; a company form names its own. A FORTIFIED certificate, if the house has or is getting one, comes from a certified FORTIFIED evaluator.

Who may sign the report depends on the form. The wind pool's dwelling mitigation verification certification is “To be Completed by Licensed Building Contractor, Registered Architect, Engineer, or Building Code Official.” Florida's uniform form lists six kinds of qualified inspector: a Florida-licensed home inspector with hurricane mitigation training, a building code inspector, a general, building or residential contractor, a professional engineer, a professional architect, or any other individual the insurer recognizes. A company form names its own list. South Carolina home inspectors are licensed by the Residential Builders Commission; whether your insurer accepts one depends on its form. For a FORTIFIED designation, IBHS requires “an independent evaluator who will verify that FORTIFIED standards are applied,” found through its provider locator. Weather Shield Roofing does not issue wind mitigation reports.

How a new roof changes the report

A roof replacement is the one time most of the roof items can change together, because the deck is open. Here is what can be done and documented while it is:

• Roof deck attachment

  The deck is open. Ring-shank nails at the spacing the contractor and code call for can be installed and photographed. Any sheathing replaced during an SC Safe Home retrofit must be fastened with ring-shank nails under the state's method.

• Secondary water resistance

  The only practical time to seal the deck seams or lay a self-adhering underlayment across the whole deck. Photograph it before the covering goes on; afterward it cannot be seen.

• Roof-to-wall attachment

  With the edge of the deck open, connectors can be added at the corners and gable ends from above. South Carolina's roof-to-wall retrofit guide lists this as one of three ways in.

• Roof covering

  A new permit date and a product that meets the current code resets this item.

• Edges and vents

  A FORTIFIED Roof adds a wider drip edge, a fully adhered starter strip and wind-and-rain-resistant attic vents. Florida's 2026 form now accepts a FORTIFIED Roof, Silver or Gold certificate as proof for specific items.

The order matters: roof first, inspection second. Book the wind mitigation inspection after the permit is closed, with the contractor's photos in hand. Our roof replacement page covers the job itself, and our FORTIFIED roofing page covers the IBHS method, which bundles the deck nailing, the sealed deck and the edge details into one standard an evaluator can certify.

The building code here works from the state's approved wind map for Horry County: 150 mph just off the beaches, 140 mph through the western part of the county. (Florida's form takes its wind region from the national hazard tool it names, not from this map.) The 2024 residential code South Carolina adopted on August 26, 2025 takes effect locally on January 1, 2027, which will move the building code answer for roofs permitted after that date. Our wind zone requirements guide has the code detail.

SC Safe Home's own wind inspection

The state's SC Safe Home grant program, created by S.C. Code 38-75-485, pays toward roof retrofits in eleven coastal counties, Horry and Georgetown among them. It has its own wind inspection, and the Department of Insurance's program FAQ is specific about it:

• “Homeowners should not schedule or pay for a wind inspection before applying for the SC Safe Home Grant.” The inspection is part of the grant process.
• Only inspectors on the program's Participating Inspectors & Contractors List can perform it.
• The homeowner pays the inspector's fee, which is capped on a sliding scale by the home's square footage.
• The home must be an owner-occupied primary residence with a current insurance policy and no existing or previous damage, and must not have received a Safe Home grant before.
• Approved retrofits must be completed within three months of the grant award letter, and the program cannot reimburse work already done.

The retrofits the law lets the program fund read like the inspection checklist: “roof deck attachment,” “secondary water barrier,” “roof covering,” “brace gable ends,” “reinforce roof-to-wall connections,” “opening protection” and “tie downs.” Weather Shield LLC is on the state's participating contractor list for Sustainable roof retrofits. Our SC Safe Home page tracks whether the program is taking applications and what to have ready.

Questions to ask the inspector before you book

• Which forms do you complete, and have you completed the one my insurer named?
• Will you photograph every feature, and will the photos go on the form?
• Do you go into the attic to measure deck nailing and check the roof-to-wall connections, or estimate them?
• If a feature cannot be verified from the attic, will the form say so, or will it be scored as absent?
• Does my insurer's form list you as someone allowed to sign it, and under which license?
• If I replace the roof, what would you need from the roofer to re-score the roof items?

Questions about wind mitigation inspections